Molecular Biology and Evolution of Crystallins: Gene Recruitment and Multifunctional Proteins in the Eye Lens (Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit)

This book describes the molecular biology and evolution of the crystallins, the characteristic structural proteins of the eye lens, set in the overall context of the evolution of eyes. The novel mechanisms of gene recruitment which have given rise to the crystallins are inextricably linked to ancient common mechanisms which define the eye in widely divergent evolutionary lineages. This is a novel presentation of very recent insights into the molecular mechanisms of the eye and the lens which have wider significance for other areas of molecular and developmental biology. This is the first book to address these emerging areas of research.